If you notice a nutrient deficiency in your hydrangeas and don't have the right fertilizer at home, look around the garden shed or garage for alternatives. Here you can find out whether orchid fertilizer is suitable for fertilizing hydrangeas or whether you should buy a special hydrangea fertilizer or use home remedies.
Can you use orchid fertilizer for hydrangeas?
Orchid fertilizer is optimized to provide nutrients to the flowers that grow on trees in nature. The nutrient requirements of orchids are very low due to their natural occurrence. Hydrangeas, on the other hand, require a very nutrient-rich substrate. The nutrients in orchid fertilizer are too weakly concentrated.
What properties does orchid fertilizer have?
Orchid fertilizer tries to recreate the conditions from the orchids' homeland, where the plants absorb nutrients from rain and fog via their aerial roots. It contains the required nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium onlyin relatively low concentrations, as the sensitive roots would quickly burn at high doses.
How suitable is orchid fertilizer for hydrangeas?
Due to the low concentration of nutrients, orchid fertilizer is not well suited for the heavy-feeding hydrangeasUnlike orchids, hydrangeas have a very high nutrient requirement that cannot be covered by orchid fertilizer. In an emergency, you can use orchid fertilizer for hydrangeas and dose it a little higher. Since the ingredients themselves are usually identical, you won't harm the hydrangeas. Due to the higher dosage, orchid fertilizer is not a sensible choice for hydrangeas, even from a price point of view. Therefore, you should normally use hydrangea fertilizer instead that is already dosed correctly for hydrangeas.
Tip
Fertilize hydrangeas and orchids with coffee grounds
Due to its ingredients and their low dosage, coffee grounds are well suited for fertilizing orchids. Hydrangeas can also be fertilized with coffee grounds; they can also tolerate larger quantities. Nevertheless, coffee grounds are not enough to fertilize heavy feeders alone and should always be supplemented with hydrangea fertilizer from the garden center.
